Some games you just know are going to stand the test of time, being released and re-released multiple times over the years, or will simply have a legacy that’s built to endure. Meanwhile, there are other games that, for whatever reason, are simply products of their time. The circumstances were right for them to launch when they did, but due to new circumstances, it’ll never happen again. This is classic reverse psychology, we hope all of these get remastered or re-released tomorrow. Okay, most of them.
1. The Punisher
The boogeyman of the Marvel Universe, The Punisher isn’t a character for the faint of heart. Dispensing justice and dealing with criminals in a more permanent way than most “heroes”, Frank Castle is to the bad guys what Doomguy is to the forces of Hell. He rips, and he tears.
While Marvel games in today’s landscape still like to dabble in more adult themes and situations, games like Spider-Man or Midnight Suns don’t go to the extreme lengths that Castle has been known for in the comics. This is why we’re never going to see a game like Volition’s The Punisher from 2005 ever again, and that’s without getting into the fact that Volition ended up being shut down by the Embracer Group, who must surely get some kind of kick out of closing down studios at this point.
A pseudo sequel/tie-in to the kinda cheesy loveable 2004 film, with Thomas Jane returning as Castle, The Punisher sees Frankie boy in New York murdering his way through all of the criminal groups he can find. While the game itself is a pretty standard third person shooter in terms of mechanics, the level of gore when it comes to the executions and interrogation scenes was pretty graphic and controversial for its time.
Nowadays, we probably wouldn’t blink at The Punisher’s violence, especially when Mortal Kombat is as graphic as it currently is. Any new version of The Punisher would probably need to have Castle committing some of the most heinous stuff to other people in order to be seen as “Punisher authentic”, and we know for a fact Disney isn’t signing off on that.
I also wouldn’t if I was Tom Jane. Where was his gratuitous cameo in Deadpool vs Wolverine?
2. PT
Perhaps the most well-covered game on this list, PT is now considered an infamous piece of delisted media, with people buying and selling PS4s that come loaded with the game for ludicrous prices just because the game had been removed from the PlayStation Store.
A “playable teaser” for Silent Hills, the now canceled Silent Hill reboot that would have seen Hideo Kojima collaborating with Norman Reedus and Guillermo Del Toro, PT basically boiled down to walking through the same couple of rooms over and over again, solving the occasional puzzle and then being jump scared by a weird zombie lady. But PT’s method of developing tension and atmosphere was unmatched in the horror gaming space.
PT’s huge success as a demo/teaser for an upcoming game catapulted Silent Hills into becoming one of, if not, the most anticipated game of the moment, but in 2015 Kojima and Konami’s feud would boil over into the public sphere. Kojima would leave Konami to start his own studio, Konami would cancel Silent Hills and attempt to remove Kojima’s name from the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and PT would be delisted entirely, leading to the great gold rush of people buying second hand PS4s.
Now, PT is long gone, but that hasn’t stopped a wave of indie developers and fans from creating their own takes on the formula, some of which have been decently successful. Either way though, removing a game digitally and making preservation for it a nightmare because you’re in a beef is remarkably stubborn.
3. Godzilla
How hard is it to make a good Godzilla game? If past form is anything to go by, incredibly hard, as there haven’t been many decent games that allow you to play as the big radioactive dragon/lizard thing. Apparently, being an all powerful being and destroying cities with ease doesn’t lend itself to good video games, which seems completely backwards as far as we’re concerned. Godzilla for the PS4 launched in 2014/15, coinciding with the release of the West’s second attempt at adapting Godzilla. At least that second attempt was much better, with that version even being included in this game, but we can’t really say the quality extended to the PS4 game. Maybe that’s because a) it was also a PS3 release, or b) the more likely scenario, it’s because actually controlling these kaiju had all of “the grace of a reversing dump truck without any tyres on.”
The premise was pretty simple, with players controlling either Godzilla himself or one of the various monsters throughout the franchise’s history depending on the mode, rampaging through the city and taking out the human military forces trying to bring you down. Sometimes, a rival kaiju would also appear, leading to a scrap between the two while the military just watches on in helpless horror. The spectacle on display and genuine love shown for the source material is impressive, even if playing the game will change how you feel about generators on a fundamental level. Bad quality aside, it’s still heartbreaking that Godzilla was delisted just two years after it launched. Whether due to poor sales or the weak critical reception, Godzilla for the PS4 was left to die and delisted by 2017, and we’re never seeing a new version of it again.
We’re also not paying £200+ for a second hand copy.
4. Too Human
Where to begin with this one?
For a while there, Silicon Knights were considered to be among the best video game developers to watch, with Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain and Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem listing among the most beloved classic games of all time. The developers had a legacy that wasn’t to be sniffed at, but come the early 2010s, any goodwill and positive reputation the company had was squandered, as Silicon Knights had released two genuine stinkers in Too Human and X-Men Destiny, along with suing Epic Games for their supposed attempts to sabotage Unreal Engine 3 licensees. Epic would then countersue, leading to a lengthy legal battle resulting in Epic winning the suit, finding evidence that SK actually stole code from Epic and attempted to pass it off as their own.
The reason the legal case is important is the reason why we’ll never see Too Human again. Sure, this cyberpunk take on Norse mythology that plays like one of the weirdest RPGs of all time is available now on the Xbox Store via backwards compatibility, but that’s about it. The game was even given away for free to Xbox users, which kind of renders the chances of a remake or remaster to about zero.
SK were ordered by the court to basically destroy everything that used the stolen Epic code, including unsold physical copies of X-Men Destiny and Too Human. Silicon Knights would also file for bankruptcy in 2014, though the writing was already long on the wall for one of the most controversial gaming studios ever. Now, would we even want to see a new version of Too Human again after all this time? That’s not the prompt of this article, but we wouldn’t mind someone trying to untie the legal gordian knot that is this next game.
5. Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes
You normally wouldn’t think of Nintendo when you talking about the Metal Gear Solid series, so the fact that the GameCube boasts an exclusive remake of the first Metal Gear Solid is pretty wild. The fact that it also wasn’t developed by Hideo Kojima is even more ridiculous, with Hideo Kojima deep in development on Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater at the time.
Instead, the decision was made to have our old friends Silicon Knights develop this remake, with Kojima taking on a supervisor role while writer and director Ryuhei Kitamura would provide some of his talent for some new, almost wonderfully ridiculous cutscenes for the game. Twin Snakes would even feature some gameplay mechanics and abilities that were only added in MGS 2, which is what makes this version of MGS 1 disappearing entirely all the more sad.
Whether due to Silicon Knights’ eventual implosion, or some kind of licensing rights between Konami and Nintendo, Twin Snakes never made it to another console, which is a damn shame, and now that Konami and Kojima have split, and with Silicon Knights basically spiting their way to an early grave, the chances of it ever happening are basically zero. It’d make for a good addition to the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection as an alternative version of MGS 1, but between the rights issues, personal issues, and how it seems to get less liked by fans as time goes on, it’s just not on the cards.
Hell, a new version of Twin Snakes that fixed some of the original game’s framerate issues could have been wonderful, though the fact that any version of Metal Gear Solid is available on all modern platforms these days is also kind of mind-blowing. Let’s just be happy we might finally see MGS 4 get ported and amscray out of here for a wild wing ding at the cyclotron instead.
6. The Simpsons: Hit & Run
One of the best licensed games of all time, or at least among the most adored, The Simpsons: Hit & Run took a well loved franchise and decided to have a bit of fun with it. A shameless copy of the Grand Theft Auto formula, albeit without the rampant violence as people just flail around like Magikarp instead of exploding in crimson, The Simpsons: Hit & Run saw TV’s most recognisable family trying to solve a conspiracy that would affect the entirety of Springfield.
What’s with all the flying robotic wasps, or the new brand of Buzz Cola that’s causing people to act loopy? How do the dastardly Kang and Kodos fall into this? The only way to find out is by driving around at high speed and occasionally solving some platforming challenges, apparently. We’re probably not selling this game as well as Abe Simpson sells sex juice, but it’s among gaming royalty for a reason: it’s some good old fashioned fun.
With seven chapters, each with their own playable character, missions, references and collectibles to find, along with full voice acting from The Simpsons cast, Hit & Run was the perfect game for fans of the series. While we’ve mentioned in the past about how the presence of Apu in the game might give some cause for concern about re-releasing or even remaking Hit & Run, there’s also the very real likelihood that the cast is getting a bit too old to really commit to an extra project like this, even just a remaster.
We’re talking thousands of additional lines of dialogue and plenty more hours in the booth for something that just isn’t going to land the same as it did 20 years ago. Full credit to The Simpsons voice cast for going as long as they have, but their age is unfortunately showing at this point. Add in just how expensive it would be to hire them, and it doesn’t add up.
7. Tony Hawk’s Underground 1 & 2
If it were up to us, you’d never Tony Hawk’s Underground 1 & 2 ever again purely because we don’t want to see Eric Sparrow’s big dumb stupid face ever again. That was our McTwist over the helicopter, you bastard.
While Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 was the first big evolution for the series, giving players the ability to freely roam around levels and accept goals at their own pace, Tony Hawk’s Underground took that approach one step further. It gave players a full-blown story of a rookie skater from New Jersey looking to go pro, and his dickhead best mate Eric who deserves to be thrown under a train. Oh, and you could get off your board to approach levels in a completely different way, climbing to new spots or trying to extend a combo by sprinting to the nearest grind rail. Underground 2 built on that premise, offering more of the same albeit in more exotic locations and with goals that definitely felt lifted from Jackass.
That Jackass relation is probably why you’ll never see Underground 2 again at the very least, as Bam Margera plays a huge role in the game’s story. Present day Bam Margera isn’t doing quite so well, and while we hope that Bam is able to sort his life out, it’s obvious that developers and publishers are going to be gunshy about releasing a game featuring Bam at this point in time. As for Underground 1, while Tony Hawk himself and Activision seem to be feeling positive about the future of the series, it’s clear from the remake of the first two games that the series is about recreating the nostalgia of the Pro Skater series, rather than visiting the ideas of Underground or even American Wasteland.
Plus, who’s going to make it after Vicarious Visions was absorbed into Activision?
8. C-12: Final Resistance
It’s clear that we’re never getting a game like C-12: Final Resistance again. A Sony published game about an alien invasion? We had that series on the PS3, it was just called Resistance and the series hasn’t been seen for over a decade. What chance do you think an obscure PS1 game will have of making a second appearance if something like Syphon Filter doesn’t get updated in lime? The weak reviews also mean C-12: Final Resistance probably isn’t going to be the first in line for a port to the PlayStation Plus Classics collection anytime soon, which is going to be disappointing news for Jimmy. Also, it’d have to be developed by a Sony-owned British studio, which isn’t going to happen considering Sony laid off so many employees recently. Even the team behind this game were shut down a few years back.
For those who don’t know what C-12: Final Resistance is all about, which will be most of you considering this PS1 game didn’t get a North American release until 2002, you control Lieutenant Riley Vaughan, a cybernetically-enhanced human soldier who’s basically the last bastion of hope against the might of a full blown alien invasion. As the invasion intensifies, you’ll upgrade your weapons and abilities, but maybe lose something of your humanity along the way in the process.
By no means is C-12: Final Resistance one of the classics of the PS1, but if you’re looking for an old school single player shooter, something that’s become something of a rarity in the mainstream, AAA gaming space, you could certainly do a lot worse than sailing the seven seas to play this.
9. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
We promise we didn’t mean to include two comic book games on this list, but at the very least, the Activision run of Spider-Man games have a different reason for not existing these days than Volition’s The Punisher.
Starting with the PS1 Spider-Man games, the Webhead was a huge part of Activision’s portfolio in the 2000s, including some pretty fantastic games like the movie tie-in to Spider-Man 2, which pioneered the more realistic swinging mechanics that have become a staple of the series, or Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows, which gave players what they really want: more Black Cat. However, we’re partial to Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, which may have ditched the free roaming aspect but offered a very stylized take on the Spider-Man mythos and a compelling beat ‘em up.
A game that went on to inspire Spider-Verse, Shattered Dimensions sees four different versions of the wallcrawler (Amazing Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man with the Black Suit, Spider-Man 2099 and Spider-Man Noir) all working together to stop Mysterio from obliterating the entire universe. Because Activision lost the Marvel license in the 2010s, all of their Marvel games, including Spider-Man, Ultimate Alliance and their X-Men games, were nuked from digital storefronts, and while there’s rumors that liance-comic-book-video-games/”>Xbox and Activision might be working on relisting the Transformers games, along with Deadpool and the Ultimate Alliance series, at this point Spider-Man has basically become a Sony character at this point. Also, re-releasing these classic Spider-Man games could lead to some Spider-Man saturation, with the already ongoing Insomniac game series, the Spider-Verse movies and comics, whatever MCU project is next and probably dozens more.
While it would be great to see Shattered Dimensions or even Edge of Time become available again, it’s just not happening. Beenox are deep in the Call of Duty Warzone mines right now, and games like Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time would need some decent work to improve their performance issues. Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard would rather grab licenses for Call of Duty and Overwatch collabs instead of making licensed games, and with Marvel Rivals coming soon at the time of writing, we’re definitely not seeing the wallcrawler appear in Overwatch anytime soon.
10. Blur
You want to talk about a game that seemingly no one has a bad word about, it’s Blur. Developed by Bizarre Creations, the Liverpool-based gaming outfit responsible for the Project Gotham Racing series, Geometry Wars and the whipper of a third person shooter that is The Club, Blur is a slight departure from their usual fare.
While it’s still a racing game, PGR played like a slightly more arcadey take on Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport, rewarding drifting and other stunt-like driving, but Blur was basically Mario Kart in a Ford GT. Licensed cars, real-life locations and a bunch of power-ups that allowed players to cause carnage on the racetrack helped make Blur one of the most incredibly fun racing games on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Unfortunately, due to the commercial failure of Blur and the relatively lukewarm response to the other Bizarre Creations game from 2010, the James Bond fronted Blood Stone, owners Activision announced that the company would be shut down. While they did commission a mobile game developer to create a Blur spin-off, it’d be the last we’d see of the Blur name ever again.
These days, you’d be hard pressed to find a game like Blur again.. A big budget racing game with licensed cars that you can crash and destroy? For whatever reason, licensed cars and destruction just don’t seem to mix, as games like Burnout, Wreckfest and BeamNG, which put destruction front and center, using original car designs inspired by real life models. Because of this, and because Activision aren’t going to do anything with the series ever again, Blur is just going to be left in the memories of all the people, so many people.
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